Jacke and Damian

How We Met

Damian and I have known each other for years, and have had mutual friends since high school and after college, but it took us many years of awkward run-ins and a few random texts, before one night he randomly invited me to go grab a beer. I was shocked at the time and still am, but that night has turned into almost 4 years and we have been inseparable ever since.

Both of us have always had a sense of adventure and had traveled many places throughout our relationship, but after each new place and experience, our love for traveling only grows. We would always say “what if we just quit our jobs and traveled the world for a year?” But I always laughed it off as if it were only a dream that would never actually happen for us. With Damian’s incredible persistence and obsession, I knew this passion and dream wasn’t going to go away. After I finally said, “ok, lets do it.”, I literally got an email confirmation that day, with my one-way ticket to Iceland. We were going to quit our jobs and travel the world…..

How He Asked

We started the trip in Iceland before heading to over 10 countries in Europe, but after about 2 months of backpacking, I couldn’t wait to get to Greece because his parents were meeting us. As soon as we got there, I was so excited to see family, that I was literally running to get to them. After a dinner of catching up, his mom mentioned that they were going to take us out for a nice dinner the next night, and would need to wear something a little dressier. Considering we were backpacking, and I didn’t have many other options, I had my mom send some things with her to give to me, and she said that she sent a dress for me to wear as well. That night, Damian dropped me off at our hotel so I could start getting ready, and he said he was going to go pick up the toiletries and other things they brought us, including the dress for our “fancy” dinner.

We finally head to meet his parents at the restaurant, and just as we get out of the car, we see the most breathtaking sunset disappearing into water (it does NOT get better than a Santorini sunset). We obviously had to go see from a better view and walked over to this beautiful little chapel and viewing point where there were tons of people with their cameras, doing the same. After a couple minutes of taking in the most incredible scenery, some selfies and way more photos than I needed, I said “ok should we go? But then I noticed all the people around sort of cleared out, and I wanted one more picture with no one around. As I turned around to leave, not knowing he was even behind me, he was on one knee.

I was so clueless and absolutely shocked, I couldn’t even process what was happening. I immediately burst into tears and couldn’t even speak. All I could do was hold him, and I literally couldn’t let go. It was like an actual fairytale dream, something you only see in movies. Once we both calmed down, I realized the million mph clicking of a camera in our face, and that she was there for us. (I hadn’t noticed her at all, but even if I had, every single tourist has a camera especially at a sunset spot). She was a professional wedding photographer from the island, who had Damian had hired and set up a plan with for months. He then tells me that she was going to take us for a one hour sunset photoshoot around the stunning village and coastline. We eventually made it to dinner and spent the rest of the evening at dinner with his mom and dad; crying, FaceTiming my family, telling all the secrets of his plan, and downing about 6 bottles of champagne and wine. (maybe more)

We have now done a full lap around the globe and been to over 25 countries together, and have already booked our next adventure, as we will be heading to Europe again this September. When there’s a whole world to see, wedding planning can wait :) Check out our blog and follow our journey here for a WAY better version of this story, written by Damian, MY FIANCE.